Fr Agustinus Sutiono O.Carm

Meditating on the story about Jesus who invited him to dine is fascinating. We know that the Pharisees always tried to trap Jesus with many things to wrong him. Although Jesus knew their thoughts and plots, he wellcomed his invitation. So, instead of avoiding him, he made himself in the close range of his observation. Probably, Jesus saw him as a sinful person who deserved his presence. Any act of kindness is a sign of love. Jesus appreciated his hospitality. In doing so, Jesus did not underline the enmity of the Pharisees towards him nor mix a possible personal sentiment with his salvific mission. It means that everyone, including the Pharisees, is called to experience the same grace of God. Jesus did not exclude nor judge him.

However, when it came for this Pharisee to see that Jesus also welcomed in the same way the kindness of a woman known as a sinner, he thought in his heart, discrediting Jesus as a prophet. He assured himself with his own definition and criteria and applied them to Jesus. Probably it was true that the woman who came to and annointed Jesus was a sinner. However, when he said to himself in his heart: “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner,” he was mercilessly judging her. That attitude is completely different from that of Jesus. Jesus wanted to save both the Pharisee who invited him to dine and the woman who annointed him. Both of them offered an act of kindness to Jesus. Regardless the form of kindness that they offered, Jesus concentrated on their actual interior disposition. This woman was more grateful to Jesus who welcome her good intention more than this Pharisee who offered him to dine in his house.

In the eyes of Jesus, there can be many act of kindness. Compared with that of the Pharisees, the content of love that intrinsicly exists in the kindness of that sinful woman who annointed him was greater and more meaningful. Jesus explained it plainly to the one who invited him to dine, saying: “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Love is creative. This sinful woman has a greater love to Jesus and creatively showed it to him. Her concrete manifestation of her love to Jesus was genuine and sincere. God knows what is in the heart.